The Choice to be
by TrisKatnissAmerica
Summary: America Singer is in love... but will she be able to overcome the past and secure the future she wants? Will her secrets destroy her relationship with her true love. This is the story of how America Singer falls in love with the Prince and chooses to be his.


**This story starts from the time America sees Aspen for the first time in the castle, when he is a palace guard and she is walking down the hallways with Maxon. I loved the books but I just found something fundamentally wrong in the fact that America would fall in love with Maxon while still pursuing a relationship with Aspen in secret during the Selection. I like to think of America as a girl with morals and principles and a strong sense of self. So, here is my version of what happens when America sees Aspen among the palace guards… Read and review please! It means a lot to me!**

 **P.S. I am copying a paragraph from the original story by Kiera Cass just to give the readers some perspective about where the story starts.**

 _We turned a corner and continued to talk. As we approached, a mass of the palace guard pulled to the side of the hall and saluted. There had to be more than a dozen men standing in the hallway. I was used to them by now. Even the sight of a collection that big couldn't distract me from the fun time I was about to have with Maxon._

 _What did stop me was when I heard the gasp that escaped someone's mouth as we passed. Maxon and I both turned._

 _And there was Aspen._

 _I gasped, too._

 _A few weeks ago, I'd heard some administrator in the palace talk about the draft in passing. I had wondered about Aspen, but seeing as I was running late to one of Silvia's many lessons, I didn't really have a chance to speculate much._

 _So he'd been taken by the draft after all. Of all the places he could have gone…_

 _Maxon caught on. "America, do you know this young man?"_

 _It had been more than a month since I'd seen Aspen, but this was the person I'd spent years committing to memory, the person who still visited my dreams. I would know him anywhere. He looked a little bigger, like he'd been fed, really fed, and was working out a lot. His scraggly hair had been cut short, practically all gone. And I was used to seeing him in secondhand clothes that were barely being held together by threads, and here he was in one of the brilliant, fitted uniforms of the palace guard._

 _He was alien and familiar at once. So many of the things around him seemed wrong. But those eyes_

 _…_ _those were Aspen's eyes._

 _My eyes fell to the name tag on his uniform:_ _OFFICER LEGER._

 _I doubted a second had passed._

 _I kept myself composed enough that no one saw the storm raging inside—a miracle in and of itself. I wanted to melt away and disappear, but I felt so very here._

 _None of it made sense._

 _I cleared my throat._

"Yes, I know him Prince Maxon. He is from my hometown in Carolina."

My voice was firm but strained, as I tried to keep my emotions in check. My use of Maxon's title did not go unnoticed by him. He glanced at me with a little worry. After all I never used his title. Not even in front of the whole country.

Aspen's eyes were boring into mine and I couldn't stand it for much longer. I had been emotionally drained when I came to the Selection and it was because of him. Over the past few weeks I had finally started building myself back up with the help of Maxon, Marlee and my sweet maids, and now here he was back again trying to ruin it.

I looked into his eyes and searched for even a hint of remorse or sadness, but there was none. His eyes were still beautiful as they had ever been but I felt strangely empty when I saw the love he was trying to convey with his eyes. My stomach did not tingle with excitement, as it used to while looking into his kind eyes back in Carolina. Now my stomach tingled when a particular man with honey coloured hair and brown eyes looked at me with love and adoration.

That was when I realized that I was falling for Maxon and I was falling hard and fast. I had come here to get away from the emotional rollercoaster back at home, and I had just created a new one here at the castle. The sweet and well-mannered Prince had helped me piece back my broken heart and at the same time had stolen it from me.

As I wrapped my head around this realization, my grip on Maxon's arm tightened.

I leaned whispered in his ear, "I am not feeling very well Maxon. Could you please escort me back to my room?"

Maxon, who had been getting increasingly worried, instantly put his arm around my shoulder to support my increasingly faint body, and with a last curious look at Aspen, started walking back towards my room. I knew that he was dying to ask questions but was refraining from doing so to be polite. I was thankful for that because I myself needed time to sort out my emotions, and I did not want to say anything in my distressed sate that I would regret later.

We soon reached the door of my room. I turned to face Maxon. He looked so worried, it made me love him all the more. He was just about to open his mouth when I said, "Maxon, I am really sorry to have wasted your time. I know you are confused but I just need some time to myself. I will explain everything to you soon enough, okay?"

Maxon worried face became a little relieved but I could still see the concern he held for me in his chocolate brown eyes. He nodded and kissed me on my forehead.

"Take your time America. Just call me if you need anything and take some rest. You look very pale."

I nodded and gave him a reassuring smile, before turning and entering my room. My sanctuary, where no one could disturb me.

 **Author's Note: Did you like it? Please review and tell me...**


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